Down the Road
by spooky1forever
Summary: Keiko finally dechipers her thoughts and confesses everything to Yusuke, but even though she hurts she finds that you can still find happiness somewhere down the road. ONE-SHOT!


Hey people! I have another one-shot here, but it's Yusuke/Keiko this time, and not the usual fluff. You guys will probably want to throw something at me when you read the end. But anyway, I wanted to write something so this eventually came out of my brain. As usual YYH doesn't belong to me...ah well....I hope you guys like it!

Down the Road

I hate him. I hate everything he stands for and everything he does. Yet......I love him. I love his smile, the real one, not that cocky smirk. His eyes and the way they sparkle with his bright ki. It's sort of sad, isn't it? The fact that I can hate him with all my being, yet turn around and fall in love with him all over again with one look at his smile. Maybe it's the fact that we've been close friends since we were little children, or maybe it's because I've always been there for him, and him me. I don't know what it is, or how it happened, but I do know that I love him no matter how many hateful words pour from my mouth. 

That one moment I realized all of this happened during the Ankoku Bujutsukkai. You know, that one moment when some switch in your head is flicked and you realize what all those crazy thoughts mean? Love. They mean love. That's never what you think in the first place though. You always try to pass it off as something that has no importance or you deny it. That's what I did until that switch was flicked and I realized that all this time I had loved him. It made perfect sense too. I mean, how could it not? Since I had finally figured out those stupid, encrypted thoughts I decided to tell him....everything. Along with this decision I had prepared myself for the worst because you never know what could happen when you bare your heart on your sleeve. 

It was a beautiful day on the island, and the wind was softly blowing in the distance. I walked out towards the area in which I knew him to frequent during this hard time on the island. He had been training for the most part of the day on a cliff by the sea. Upon nearing the cliff, the salty smell of the sea hit my nose and I crinkled it in disgust. As my eyes first fell upon him I saw that his ki was flaring all around him forming a protective barrier between him and the rest of the world. If you had told me a year ago that this punk in front of me, Number One Punk at Sariyaski Junior High, would eventually be this powerful and this dangerous, I would have laughed right in your face. I had always known he was a rebel and a fighter, but never had I imagined this. I shook my head to clear the thoughts so I could concentrate. I cleared my throat as I closed the last gap between me and him. 

'Yusuke.' Upon hearing my voice, his ki diminished considerably and he turned to face me. 

'Hey Keiko. Nice skirt.' I looked at my choice of clothes for the day. I didn't know why he would be saying that on today of all days considering that my outfit didn't warrant any comments like that. But it was Yusuke and I'm used to him and his antics. As I looked up I saw that damn smirk on his face. The one I had wanted to smack off countless times. 

'Hey Yusuke, can we maybe, talk?' I gingerly asked.

'Uh-oh. Those words never mean anything good.' He was joking, of course, because that's Yusuke. 'Sure.' 

We sat down in comfortable silence as Yusuke waited for me to talk. Figuring that it was now or never, I begun.

'I never thought I'd see the day when I'd be saying any of this to you, but I guess I was wrong.' I took a deep breath

'Yusuke, you mean the world to me and Kami knows what my life would be like without you. All I wanted to say is that after all these years.....I think I love you.' I internally braced myself for the rebuttal and all it's pain. 

'Keiko.' The way he said my name made me want to grit my teeth together and kick him. It was that tone that people use when they don't want to hurt you but they have to break something to you gently at the same time. I knew where this was going.

'I don't....I don't know what to say.' I didn't feel the need to stick around anymore because I knew what was going to happen and I didn't think I could hold up much longer. So I stood up and started brushing off my skirt.

'I understand. I'll just go find Botan or Shizuru and leave you to your training. Kami knows it's important right now.' The tears piercing the corners of my eyes were threatening to fall. 

'No.' He had reached out and grabbed my wrist, stopping me from going any farther. He joined me in standing up.

'Keiko. It's hard to explain what's going on in my head right now.' At this I rolled my eyes and turned my head to watch some bird try and find a landing spot. Yusuke gently grabbed my chin and brought my eyes back to his.

'I feel for you Keiko. I really do. I'm not sure about love, but something inside me longs to be with you. But....Not now. Not when I'm so busy with trying to stay alive. And especially not with all of this.' He waved his hand to motion to the island. 

'I don't want you dying or to even be hurt in the smallest way and by being with you I take that risk of unintentionally making you a target. You've been kidnapped once as bait and I wouldn't be able to see that happen again. Maybe at some point down the road we can be together without a death threat hanging over our heads, but not right now. I'm sorry.' Yusuke finished wiping a stray tear from my cheek and stared at me with caring eyes. 

'It's okay. And you're right. Maybe at some point down the road we can be together.' 

'Yeah maybe.' And then I saw that smile, not smirk, but that smile that melts me and while my hurt still lingered, and would for a while, hope was building within me as well. Hope that one day we could truly be together even if that day was somewhere far down the road. 

~OWARI~

Well there you go...Kinda sad, ne?...I hope you guys liked it and it's twist...It's not the usual fluff where they live happily ever after. I wanted a different type of story so I thought that maybe if they didn't actually hook up it would be unusual and people might like that. I'm not too pleased with the ending thought, but then again I'm very critical of myself. Oh well! As long as you guys are happy and like it, I'm good...So yeah, now you guys can go review like you know you want to... :-) 


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